[Lowell, Mass.]
Dear Farther

We gladly received a letter (or not worthy to be called a letter it was
so small) from Elizabeth and likewise from Benjamin and mother. I
was plesed to here that you was well and get along so well in your
business. When you write again I want you to write a whole letter. If you
cant find words enough to fill a sheet of paper get some of your
neighbors to healp you. As you have given your concent beloved father
for me to come to this place I hope you will have no cause to be
sory. I want you to write me as soon as you can afford time to.

Don’t let this be seen.

Dearly beloved mother

I do not want this letter to trouble you that I wrote to you but I want
Wrtite to me what to do wether it is best to go to the Baptist or
To the Methodist.  I feel well contented much better that I thoug
That I should. Give my love to all my friends. Tell little Johnny that I
Have got his juiceharp and tell georgegy that I will bring him home
Something when I come home

                                                      Your &c
                                                      Sarah H
 
  ^{1Sarah D. Hodgdon b: 1814, NH; parents Abner and Mary 
     Hodgdon; her occupation 1830: Merrimack Company, 
     weaver and later Great Falls Company, Great Falls, NH 
     now Somersworth, NH; married Dec 1845 Rochester, NH; 
     William S. Jenness b: 1815, Rochester, NH; his occupation: 
     shoemaker; residence 1850-1870: Rchester, NH. 
  2Abner Hodgdon b: 1785, NH; occupation farmer; married: 
     Mary ---- b: 1788, NH; residence 1850: Rochester, NH.
  3Mary ---- b: 1788, NH; married Abner Hodgdon b: 1785, NH; 
     occupation farmer; residence 1850: Rochester, NH.}
  
 

To my deare father an mother an sister and all the rest
  
I want to se you more I think
Than I can write with pen an ink.
But when I shall I canot tell
But from my heart I wish you well.
I wish you well from all my heart
Although we are so far apart.
If you die there and I die here,
Before one God we shall appear^{4
  
  4Also appears in Lowell Offering, Series I, No. 2, 1841, 
     p. 125; “Familiar Sketches, No. 2.  The Fig Tree” by Ione 
     [Harriet A. Lees (m. John F. Carney)].  Fiction considering 
     the subject of disappointed love.  At the story’s conclusion, 
     the heroine enters the Lowell mills.}